Namma Metro: One slow decade

How have different Metro systems fared in terms of their construction over the last few years?

Billed as the ultimate panacea for Bengaluru’s infamous road traffic woes, Namma Metro had chugged in with much promise on October 20, 2011. Ten years later, with only two lines and 56.1 kms operationalised, the glitzy mass transport option is now trying to breeze past a maze of missed deadlines and escalating costs, as other cities across India are racing ahead. Before the pandemic struck, Namma Metro had a total of 46 km, completed after 13 years of construction. Did that qualify it to be one of India’s slowest Metro projects? “There is no truth in that,” contends Anjum Parvez, Managing Director of the Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Limited (BMRCL). “Only delay that has happened is because of Covid as the labourers left,” he points out. Part of the project’s Phase 2 will be completed by December 2022. “The entire phase will be done by December 2024. So it is on track and there is absolutely no problem,” asserts Anjum.

Daily ridership on the Metro had hit six lakh before the pandemic. “For a length of 46km, we had one of the best riderships pre-Covid, comparable to Delhi. Ridership will rise again with more lines. The Kengeri and Silk Institute lines have opened. The major jump will come when the Whitefield line starts,” he elaborates. But ridership rides on other critical factors too. Huge gaps in last-mile connectivity, intermodal linkages and station design in the first phase meant commuters did not make that expected switch from their personal vehicles to the Metro along multiple corridors. This has been a challenge for Metro systems across India.

“Multi-modal integration should be part of the planning stage itself. Station location, access to feeder buses, how the passengers are picked up and dropped, ease of access by walk, these were completely neglected in the first phase,” notes Prof Ashish Verma, a transport engineering expert from the Indian Institute of Science. Many phase 1 stations are without adequate bus bays. This design compromise has been a feature of many Phase 2 stations as well. “Even integration between the Metro and Railway stations were not thought of, the Yeswanthpura and Cantonment stations being cases in point. These gaps in integration can lead to loss in ridership,” he cautions.

But from a long-term perspective, Namma Metro and similar systems spreading their networks in 12 other cities – big and small – across India could be a game-changer in urban mobility. The real estate sector has already sensed the huge potential. Increased land value, land use change and densification along the corridor are fertile grounds for the sector to flourish. Industry watchers say land and rental values go up substantially as distance to a Metro station goes down.

As Anjum notes, “the moment the Airport line was announced, many builders and developers came forward asking for direct foot overbridges from the Metro stations to their upcoming campuses. The real impact can be seen along the Airport Road corridor as a lot of land is available there. IT parks, office spaces, and residential flats are all moving there.” Once connectivity improves, the Metro tends to transform barren stretches to commercial hubs, and boost land prices even on a city’s outskirts. This was particularly noticed after commissioning of the 30km Noida-Greater Noida Metro, which sparked a rise in property prices.

Rajendra Joshi, Brigade Group’s Chief Executive Officer, Residential echoes this view: “If Whitefield, which is today congested and lacks public transport infrastructure, is connected by Metro to a place like Kengeri, people will move towards Kengeri where cost of living is much lower. Clearly, Metro in any part of the city will drive real estate growth.”

Also read: Integrated public transport system, not Metro, is key

Under the first phase, BMRCL had inked a public private partnership with Mantri Developers to build the Mantri Square Sampige Road station attached to a shopping mall. This unique collaboration could be a model for future alignments if all financial and compliance conditions are met, feels Suresh Hari, Chairman of the Confederation of Real Estate Developers Associations of India (CREDAI). “A lot of such proposals were sent to the BMRCL in the past.” he recalls.

In general, properties around Metro corridors have done very well, notes Suresh. But land owners have enjoyed better returns than developers. “Developers in the middle and affordable housing categories, who had foreseen the demand potential and invested smartly have also benefited. Big players are now looking at developing the access areas.”

13 Metros

Nationwide, 13 Metro systems are currently operational, with Delhi leading the pack by a huge margin. Serving 254 stations along 10 lines, the Delhi Metro is today India’s busiest and second oldest after Kolkata. Several more systems are now in the pipeline in Tier-2 cities. But only in recent years has the Metro network expansion picked up pace. Kolkata Metro opened in 1984, but it took another 18 years for the Delhi Metro to start chugging on December 25, 2002.

A single-line, the 11.07km Versova-Andheri-Ghatkopar stretch is the torchbearer of Mumbai Metro. Over a dozen lines are expected to be commissioned in the years ahead. The Red Line 7 and Yellow Line 2A are being operationalised in four months. Work on the Andheri East - Dahisar East and Dahisar West - DN Nagar lines started in 2016. Scheduled for a December 2019 launch, the opening has been delayed due to multiple reasons. In the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR), covering Mumbai City, Mumbai Suburban, Palghar, Thane and Raigad, over 300 kms of Metro line has been planned.

Chennai got its first Metro corridor in June 2015 after a tumultuous journey. The project was approved in 2009 and the construction began immediately. After a regime change in 2011, the then Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa wanted to scrap it but could not. Work on the project resumed. The first phase connecting 45.06 km was fully operationalised in February 2019 with a nine-km extension added early this year. But the total ridership is just about 1.25 lakhs, only 15% of the expected daily ridership of six lakh. High fares and lack of last-mile connectivity are cited for the low ridership.

Work on the ambitious Phase-II of Chennai Metro has begun. Planned to add 118.9 km to the network, this will connect the city’s Northern part (Madhavaram) with the Southern part and the IT corridor. The second phase linking the suburbs of Poonamallee, is expected to further boost ridership.

Operationalised in 2017, the 25km first phase of the Kochi Metro currently runs between Aluva and Pettah, passing through the heart of the city. Services are operated in a gap of 8 to 20 minutes, connecting 22 stations. Average ridership had peaked at 70,000 before the lockdown. Based on a commuter survey finding, the Kochi Metro Rail Limited is planning a fare reduction to meet its target of two lakh daily ridership by the year-end. The Kochi Metro has been unique in its integration with a Water Metro service to boost connectivity to 10 islands in and around the city. Its first phase was formally launched in February with eco-friendly boats.

Unlike the developed world, Indian Metro systems have largely taken the elevated route with a few underground stretches. Cost is a factor, but Anjum’s contention that an elevated line at Rs 280-300 crore / km is cheaper than going underground at Rs 550-600 crore / km is contested.

Reasons Prof Ashish: “There may be initial capital cost savings, but cost-benefit analysis shows underground getting cheaper in the long run. Metro should be underground at least through the core areas of the city as is the global practice.” Elevated structures, he reminds, also comes at a huge social cost. “We kill our open spaces, and as the M G Road stretch of Namma Metro shows, destroy our urban aesthetics.” The iconic boulevard made way for the Metro pillars. Going underground also made little practical sense here, since the intersection with the Gottigere-Nagawara line is now five levels apart.

(With inputs from Mrityunjay Bose, E T B Sivapriyan and Arjun Raghunath)

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